The Judgement of Sydney was conceived about 6 months ago when one of the regulars of the tasting group broached the idea of doing a tasting around the theme of the Judgement of Paris, with an added twist. Instead of the US vs France we wanted to add 3 more into the ring, originally we had France, USA, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, it was decided after discussions that it may be too many and/or too hard to find suitably aged examples of the NZ ones so it was by consensus dropped out of the event. (waits for the Kiwis to start mumbling about underarm deliveries again)
In a further twist to the proceedings was the addition of 3 tiers, based loosely on a combination of representativeness/prestige/availability/reputation, people could argue forever and a day over what the wine would/should have been, in retrospect I think our choices were indicative of the country they were representing. All the wines were showing well with only one heat affected bottle. The vintages used were all good ones for the respective countries and around 20 years in age, admittedly still too young for most of these wines but still a nice bit of age on them to enable us to see some development happening in the wines. All wines were treated the same with a slow oxidise on the day and decanted and served single blind. We had around 20-30mins to taste them and had to rank 1 to 4 with the results collated and the most preferred one announced. Plus the obligatory try and guess which was which before the reveal, which caught a lot of people by surprise with preconceived notions of what they were expecting being totally the opposite to reality.
The event was held at The Devonshire in Sydney with a special menu created to suit the Cabernet Based wines. As always the food was good and well put together with all dishes complementing the wines in each flight. The Wagyu dish was seriously good, melt in your mouth stuff, all the dishes had a nice richness about them which really helped in overcoming the prominent tannins in these wines.
There were 9 people in attendance with one keen taster flying interstate to attend the dinner, and a handout outlining all the wines, tasting notes and some anecdotes and backstory was created. We started off with a couple of whites to get into the swing of things.
Final line up was as follows
Whites
2000 Krug
1992 Zind Humbrecht Clos Jebsal Vendange Tardives
Dessert Wine
1976 Château d’Yquem
Tier 1
1996 Chateau Latour
1995 Harlan Estate
1996 Penfolds Block 42
1997 Sassicaia
Tier 2
1996 Chateau Pichon Lalande
1995 Abreu Madrona Ranch
1996 Moss Wood CabSav
1997 Antinori Solaia
Tier 3
1996 Chateau Leoville Poyferre
1995 Pride Mountain Reserve Claret
1996 Wynns John Riddoch CabSav
1997 Ornellaia
2000 Krug
This started our proceedings, the nose that greeted me was not the usual bounding out of the glass sort of thing, a much more muted and reticent nose of lemon pith and green straw. To me it hasn’t budged one iota in the 14 years showing very primary. On the palate the story was the same, there seemed to be a distinct lack of fruit power you normally associate with Krug. The overall feeling I got was a soft almost malo’ed wine with lots of acidity on the back palate and a real freshness and youthfulness about it and dare I say a bit simple. Even the length seemed to suffer with none of that 60 second hang time you associate with Krug. I’d probably hazard a guess and say it is in a hole at the moment and would put it away for another 20 years so it can start to develop some secondary characteristics and complexity.
1992 Zind Humbrecht Clos Jebsal Vendange Tardives
Lots of power on the nose, rockmelon, oranges, sweet tropical fruits, it put me in the mind of a rich German Auslese such was the power of the fruit. On tasting it was all honeycomb and butterscotch, with a real creamy and unctuous feel, sliding instead of swirling around your mouth. Huge length with great structure and acidity balancing it out perfectly as it finishes off to a tangy lemon butter. Parker says these give Montrachets a run for their money and I can see why.
The Judgement
We decided to do the Tiers in the order 2, 1, 3 the thinking being that we’d still be ok to appreciate the Tier ones without smashing all the others out of the ball park by running the Tier One flight first. Most of my notes were done in the blind stages, so there were no preconceptions as to what it was.
Tier Two
1997 Solaia
Very austere nose, with a hint of bacon fat. Tart and brambly and quite tannic, the tannins were quite coarse and rustic which had me thinking Italian straight away, the way the structure hits your cheeks and the acid has you sucking it from them.
1995 Abreu Vineyard Madrona Ranch
This to me screamed Australian Margaret River, with some green and stalky characteristics, the tannins very soft and velvet like almost dusty. Plums, sour cherry, hints of mint and almonds with a nice lick of acid on the back to help carry the length which was really good.
1996 Chateau Pichon Lalande
Another with the classic tomato leaf, stalky characteristics which is classic CabSav to my tastes. I found this really interesting, the tannin structure was quite removed from what I was expecting from the nose. I was thinking this is going to hurt and have me sucking up the bark, but it was quite the opposite with a softness about it which I thought added a great bit of complexity and interest to it. I’m not sure how it will age moving forward though as the inherent green-ness may become it’s undoing. Classic Bordeaux, graphite/pencil characteristics.
1996 Moss Wood CabSav
Jammy, big style, with lots of red currant and hints of raspberry had me thinking USA, USA (oh well). The style was a lot softer and more resolved so put me in the mind of a wine that maybe has a 20-30 year life expectancy unlike some of the wines here that are 30-50 year bracket. Certainly opened my eyes to how preconceived perceptions can be so wrong. I’d had the US one as the Aussie and vice versa. Yellow Tail anyone?
Tier One
The first thing that struck me as I did my initial ‘fly by’ of nosing the four glasses was the massive increase of power and depth of fruit these were exhibiting. The Harlan was first (unbeknownst to me, and straight away it reminded me of the Bryant Family vineyards with that amazing depth of fruit)
1995 Harlan Estate
Beautiful nose, simply beautiful. The purity of fruit was amazing, just so linear and focused, blackberry, raspberry a cornucopia of dark fruit then on the first sip the power of it as it glides across your tongue with the tannins providing the perfect foil and a harmonious balance that Beethoven would be proud of, and then it just went on and on and on. Thank you linesman, thank you ball boys. Everyone was just looking up and saying, Oh my God, number one, have you tried number one? I think I said, number 1 has just smashed all the others and in hindsight the ‘others’ were Latour, Sassicaia, Block 42. No mean feat. To say I was surprised to learn this was the Harlan would be a huge understatement, it was more French than the French, it was everything I’d expect from a First Growth Bordeaux and more. It is a travesty that people buy this wine as an investment not to drink. This along with the Bryant and Bond has changed my opinion on US wines for good.
1997 Sassicaia
Nice plums and blackberry with hints of spice and heather providing an intriguing nose. Lots of dark chocolate (think 70% Cacao stuff that is bordering on bitter). Those rustic, grippy tannins that have you reaching for a nice creamy pasta sauce. Really interesting wine, which had a real mealiness about it. Then it started to take on an almost cheesiness providing a bit of extra interest as it sat in the glass. Thinking man’s wine, great discussion wine.
1996 Chateau Latour
Supremely elegant nose, very French (which is why I thought it was the Sassicaia, go figure). A real ethereal feel in the mouth of lightness and power. (like DRC does so well with Pinot), soft and supple. Blackberry, liquorice, nice freshness about it, but the finish killed it for me, it really didn’t finish well and up against the others little things like that can make all the difference. Yes it’s probably like fussing over the feel of the brake pedal on the Ferrari and the Lamborghini. It sort of hit your back palate and just fell off the cliff.
1996 Penfolds Block 42
I actually had this as my second favourite wine, why? Especially as everyone else had lambasted it (in the comparison to the other three). It was a wine that I could see where it was going, not where it was at which made me score it higher. (this idea is very strange for me, it was almost like an epiphany of seeing in the future). The sour cherry, blackberry/cassis and acidic backbone was going to soften along with the furry tannins to end up as a sublimely elegant wine in another 20 years. I was reliving the 75 Grange all over again which they said would never come around.
Tier 3
1997 Ornellaia
Rich nose, blackcurrant and cassis, really nice fruit, cedar and pencil shavings and hints of tobacco leaf. This is aging really well with the finish nicely resolved, softening on the palate. This was one of those, ‘just right’ wines that are right in the hole at the moment. (in a good way). Held my interest moreso than the others.
1995 Pride Mountain Reserve Claret
This came across a bit hot at first, it was soft and supple with really nice oak. Big fruited wine with perfect balance, the tannins are grippy and just right. Lots of chocolate and hints of coffee bean although it didn’t finish as long as I would have thought – still a good 10-20 seconds albeit. This was probably my favourite tasting wine of the flight, although I leaned towards the Ornellaia for its interest - so yes we are splitting hairs here which really needs to be said (a lot) as in isolation all these wines would be a privilege to drink.
1996 Leoville Poyferre
Lots of tobacco leaf, stalkiness, a ‘thinner’ wine compared to the others, showing more elegance, hints of earth and pooey notes, with the fruit a bit out of balance. Touches of iodine were also present, and hints of cedar and woody notes almost pine sap like. Drinking nicely but probably overshadowed by the first two.
1996 Wynns John Riddoch
Flawed. Heat damage. Doesn’t make a good port either.
1976 Chateau d’Yquem
Huge nose, caramelised oranges, massive, massive wine, great acidity and so smooth and silky. This came at you in waves, lots of tropical fruits, musk. Going by my writing (which I can’t read the last line of what I wrote) I must have been either overly enamoured or pretty drunk by then. Essential Sweetness? No idea what I meant by that. Essence of Sweetness maybe? I also have brown sugar but I think that was the Jazz Club I was supposed to visit as I was flying out to Shanghai the next day… anyway a lovely drink and always a rare treat to have, many thanks to Len for his usual generosity.
Results
We voted for WOTN in each tier, then ranked them 1 to 4
Tier 1
1995 Harlan Estate
1997 Sassicaia
1996 Chateau Latour
1996 Penfolds Block 42
Tier 2
1997 Antinori Solaia
1995 Abreu Madrona Ranch
1996 Chateau Pichon Lalande
1996 Moss Wood
Tier 3
1995 Pride Reserve Claret
1997 Ornellaia
1996 Leo Poyferre
1996 Wynns John Riddoch
Overall winner was the Harlan on the night – convincingly I may add.
With the US taking 2 first places and Italy a first and two seconds it really opened our eyes. I’m sure others would say the test method was flawed, sample size too small yadda, yadda from our perspective this microcosm encapsulates a lot of soul searching and redefining of our tastes and preferences. (especially from a person with a cellar of about 90% Australian wines) We certainly won’t be getting any Xmas cards from Wine Australia.
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My only regret now is the dearth of US wines in this country and for what there is, it is horribly expensive and in most cases their answer to our Yellow Tail.
All things considered this was a great event. Thanks to all for their tireless work in organising. I did a small handout for the event, will remove if any copyright issues. Is about 3Mb. Here (view in 2 page mode)
Food
Salt fish brandade with caper sauce
Roast pork belly beignets, char-grilled chorizo, crisp pig tails, pickled daikon & apple, sage and chopped crackle
Olive oil poached duck breast, raviolo of leg, caramelised onion puree, root vegetable and thyme jus gras
Slow cooked wagyu rump cap & short rib, dried field mushroom crumb, roast garlic, dutch carrots and shallot jus
Devonshire tea crème brûlée, scone ice-cream, cherry jam and whipped cream
